Participation

Students will be expected to have read and be prepared to critically discuss the readings for each week. Lectures will take place on Mondays; Discussions on Wednesdays. In addition to the readings, students will utilize the course wiki to contribute references and suggestions to the course bibliography, link to relevant web-sources on the digital resources, and contribute commentary on one another's course projects (below). Be certain to sign-in with your last name when you post these comments and references.

Milestones for participation will be:

• end of 4th week of class (January 30th) create personal wiki page (see using this forum).
• on this page, share interests and ideas regarding potential final projects and generate peer-to-peer review of other class members' proposals.
• by February 20th, after consultation with instructor and commentary of class members, place proposal for final project on wiki page.

Course Projects

Students will prepare by the deadlines listed below two short projects chosen from the following list, or agreed upon after consultation with the instructor:

1. Utilize any non-commercial, open source software to create a form of social software for your personal use at Stanford and/or to enable your long-term research projects at Stanford (e.g. undergraduate theses, doctoral dissertations, etc.) - this may be a .html web page, wiki forum, blog, or database (such as Filemaker Pro) structure. It is to be placed on the Stanford Leland server. For a list of open source software.
2. Compose a short weblog entry (typically <1000 wds) as a critical reflection upon the course readings and/or a current example of visualization of archaeological information (such as in television recreations, or from one of the digital resources), and/or as a commentary upon existing archaeological entries in the blogosphere (see the blogs listed under digital resources). These will be published with a relevant blog which the instructor is involved with, such as Archaeolog, the Stanford Archaeology Forum, Material World or Philolog.
3. Compose a visual essay or documentation of an archaeological topic of your choice and publish your entry on Archaeography or as a publicly accessible slideshow on this wiki. These may consist of your own photographs and/or a collage of re-mixed photographs or other visualizations from the internet (see relevant copyright issues), and/or other visual media after consultation with the instructor.
4. If familiar with digital video editing software (such as Final Cut Pro/Express) create a video short (<10 minutes) on an archaeological topic - again using your original dv footage or a mixing of video available on the internet (check the copyright issues link). These will either be put on YouTube or streamed from this wiki - as a 'vlog'.
5. Using the students own data, or data derived from public domain databases, create a series (<10 graphs/images) of statistical graphs and/or charts which are embedded in this wiki so that they are interactive. Students should pay close attention to the readings of the course bibliography concerning the display of quantitative information (esp. Edward Tufte). For examples of interactive statistical displays, see Teotihuacan statistical analyses.
6. Create a mashup or remix of archaeological data from the Catalhoyuk archaeology project and upload your remix.
7. With conventional GIS software or an open source variety, create a map or series of maps referencing an archaeological database. Consult with the instructor for appropriate databases.
8. Visit an archaeological site in SecondLife and either create an addition to the "islands", or grab a series of images or a video of your visit and make a short textual or audio narration of the virtual experience. Examples could be visiting [link] Roma (Imperial Rome re-creation), Okapi Island (Catalhoyuk mediation) or Cayuga (an animated archive). Note: you will need to create a user account and download the client software, both of which are free.  See the instructor's [link] blog entry on ROMA] for further orientation and background.
9. Create another short project in consultation with the instructor.

The first short project will be due by class on January 30th.

Second short project will be due by class on February 27th.

Final Project

The final project for the course will be an elaboration of one of the students' short, course projects chosen from the list above combined with a critical, paper-based essay engaging both the readings from the class and the specifics of the practical project they have chosen. The digital project and paper-essay must inter-relate. The essay will, amongst other things, assess the effectiveness of the technique(s), detail what the visualization consists of (its mechanics), explore its functionality and how it works with users, state the goals for the visualization and discuss what information is augmented using the technique(s), how information is transformed by the visualization, and what information is "left out" or de-emphasized. The essay may also review the design history of the technology and its usage in the field of archaeology, address the potentials or drawbacks of the specific technique(s), offer suggestions for future development, etc.

Note about essay length

• undergraduates = 2,000 wds
• graduates = 4,000 wds

The Final Project is due March 17th @ 5pm.

Breakdown of the course assessment:

• class participation = 30%
• course projects (2@15% each) = 30%
• Final course project = 40%

Note about credit units

• Students taking the course for 3 units: no short projects required.
• Students taking the course for 4 units: 1 short project required.
• Students taking the course for the full number of units are required to complete all the requirements detailed above.

Assessment breakdown will be adjusted accordingly.

If you have any questions concerning assessment and requirements, please come and talk or leave a comment below.

Posted at Mar 17/2008 04:06PM:
twebmoor: Jonathan, I see your essay on your blog. Great work. Substantive commentary will be posted there before we put it up on Archaeolog.org .

Posted at Mar 23/2008 07:43AM:
edelman: Thank you for your comments -- they are helpful for me to know where I am going. I believe that you are correct in assessing Latour's contention that we work with hybrids, as business as usual. In engineering design, the middle has all but disappeared. Engineers are modern, with religious zeal. The tools of modernity are so powerful that they seduce us into believing that they are the totality. The trouble is that they can be wonderfully self referential, but empty of meaning in respect to user experience or user needs. I think you are dead on about including data, data, data in a published piece, particularly when approaching industry for funding, not to mention dissertation reading committees for three signatures. I will be collecting data during spring quarter like a squirrel gathering nuts for a long cold winter. Then I will follow the path of circulating reference, purifying and amplifying... Finally, I have chased down some of the references that were cited in several of the papers we read. I am finding Lynch and Woolgar (Representation in Scientific Practice) very useful. Also reading Hankins and Silverman -- again opening up worlds. I believe that examining the arc of scientific knowing will shed light on process in engineering design.

I will email you as soon as it is finished -- shortly!

Please let me know about the course evaluation.